This web log is on freeze.

Freeze, web log!

You got 419'ed

I'm coining this term right here and now. Gonna work it into my "mental lexicon."

Read about why, here.

Sony.

They're the only ones who don't realize how badly their fucking up right now.

I met god once

not a very talkative fellow.

Bush is in the closet, Anthrax is a great soup thickener, and death around the corner for millions, says the dalai lama

These stories and more at 5:))))))))))))))))

Instead of working on one of the two presentations I have due at the end of this week:

Part of the time I spent procrastinating was taking a solid hour to make my gaim settings work and transfer back and forth between Windows and Linux, and to make sure they worked well, for everything. It's highly satisfying. More satisfying than making progress on two very real projects that are huge portions of my grades? Possibly.

Chindogu. The next internet meme?

Something tells me there are going to be a lot more stories in the near future on Boing Boing and sites like that on Chindogu. It's just ripe for it.

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/05/04/chindogu_anarchic_wh.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chindogu

Mounting Frustrations With Windows.

For a while there, the more time I spent working with Linux, the more I liked Linux. I may be reaching a point of diminishing returns on that token, but I can safely say that the more time I spend in Windows, the less I like it now.  It  has gotten to the point where I really could give a fuck less about the lack of gaming in Linux because aside from that, Windows has just kind of died for me. It's not as nice to look at, not as nice to use, and not as fun as an operating system. It feels like a chore to do anything in Windows, not to say that it's difficult. Just...boring.

I've been telling people for months that bees are smart as hell.

First we learn that they can recognize human faces, now this.

Bees

The Hidden Profile Effect: I learned something important about group decisions today in school.

Read this if you've ever had to do a group project in school or at work. It might be enlightening. This is all about a concept called the hidden profile. Let's say you are in a group with just one other person. Two of you. You have a decision to make; you want to figure out whether or not you should incorporate idea X into your project. Logically, you come up with all of the benefits of choosing A, and all of the drawbacks of doing it. Imagine your partner is doing the same thing.  As it turns out, you come up with 4 reasons for thinking that A is going to work in the project, and only 3 reasons why it might not work.. We will label your "pluses" as X1, X2, X3, and X4.  Your "minuses" will be Y1, Y2, and Y3.  Your partner has also finished doing their brainstorming, and has come up with a slightly different set of positive consequences for using this idea in the project. His "pluses" are X1, X2, X3, and X5. His "minuses" are entirely different from yours: Y4, Y5, and Y6.

When you converge to discuss the topic at hand, you're likely to only discuss the point of view that you like more (in this case, the positive). Same thing with your partner. You'll go through your list of ideas, and when you get to X4 your partner will say "oh yeah, I never thought of that!" In turn, you will learn from his X5.  In total, you will have 5 positive reasons for going with the idea. The tragedy here, is that between the two of you, there were 6 unique reasons NOT to do the idea, but you never discuss them. 

Why does this happen? Maybe it's because we instinctually want to be right, and so we just "jettison" all of the ideas that we have come up with that support our point of view, A.  We don't even give the lesser, "inferior" in our mind point of view a second chance. And we really should. I think a way to remedy this would be to try to discuss both sides of an idea even if you only support one of them.  It might make group projects better. Lord knows that most of us need to communicate better in tasked group settings...

I learned about this today in my interpersonal communication theory class with Dr. Charles Pavitt, a communications professor at the University of Delaware. You can read more about this at his page on Social Influence here (search for hidden profile effect).

One casting director said to me, “The studios will only make comedies, and those with only four people, two of whom were in Wedding Crashers!”

We Lost It at the Movies -- New York Magazine

Stephen Colbert airs out the Bush Administration at the White House Correspondents Dinner.

http://www.vsocial.com/video/?d=26416

A Link to Today's hilarious Jerkcity comic strip

http://www.jerkcity.com/jerkcity2740.html